Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation has said that he was not impressed with the pace of work at the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project.
Amaechi expressed his disappointment during the monthly inspection of the project in Ibadan on Tuesday.
“There is a slow pace of work in the Lagos axis of the project,
“The expectations from the sub-contractor appointed for the relocation of pipes and all, were not met.
“The persons relocating the water pipelines are expected to finish by November 2 but they have come up with different excuses that they discovered other utilities underground.
“The excuses are not tenable. I have told them to speed up the work,” he said.
The minister said about 10 train stations would be constructed from the Lagos axis to Ibadan to allow various communities have access to the train services.
The minister charged the China Civil Engineer Construction Company, the contractor handling the project to employ Nigerian engineers in the construction works.
The minister said that there was need for more workforce on site to enable them to meet the target set for the project.
“I have instructed the contractor and the project consultant to have local engineers on site.
“The construction of beams which is ongoing is a strategic part of the project which should be understudied by Nigerian engineers, so they are able to carry out the project in future.
“Though there is a huge improvement in the level of work carried out on Abeokuta axis where some bridges had been constructed,” he said.
“Some of the stations won’t take more than one month to complete especially now that the rain is over, so we are still on target,” Amaechi concluded.
